IMB task force to take future look

By Shawn Hendricks

Baptist Press

Dennis and Sherrie Meilstrup were among 55 newly retired missionaries honored at an emeritus recognition service June 22. They served in Argentina 22 years.

IMB Photo

BP

ROCKVILLE, Va. - Trustees of the International Mission Board (IMB) created a task force to examine future directions for Southern Baptists' 163-year-old missions enterprise during their June 23-25 meeting at the International Learning Center in Rockville, Va.

The trustees also appointed 72 new missionaries and appropriated $3.2 million from reserve funds to cover expenses not met by last year's Lottie Moon Christmas Offering.

Thirty-eight of the new missionaries were appointed at Bon Air Baptist Church in Richmond on Wednesday night. The other 34 will be appointed at Southern Hills Baptist Church in Oklahoma City today (June 27).

Fifty-five emeritus missionaries also were honored for a combined total of 1,640 years of mission service during a weeklong emeritus recognition conference.

In his report to the trustees, IMB President Jerry Rankin shared some of the challenges missionaries will face and how the IMB must be poised to respond.

"Our society is changing. Our denomination and churches are changing. The world is changing," Rankin said.

Rankin cited global events - natural disasters and conflicts, urbanization, Muslim extremism, diversity within the Southern Baptist Convention, declining values and growing technology - as some of the factors calling for new strategies.

"If we are to stay relevant and effective in our efforts to reach a lost world, we cannot continue the status quo, doing what we have always done," Rankin said. "We've got to be more creative and more innovative if we're going to fulfill the Great Commission."

Trustees formed a task force - composed of trustees and staff leaders - to operate under the charge of "Renewing the Vision" to address these concerns and assess the IMB's structure, strategies and plans for the future.

Not all changes across the world are negative, Rankin added, citing a time of "unprecedented global advance," with 609,000 people baptized and 25,497 new churches reported overseas last year through the work of Southern Baptist missionaries and partners.

Rankin presented specifics on the task force and potential future changes in a closed session with trustees. Details will be available in the coming months.

Presiding at first meeting as trustee chairman, Paul Chitwood of Mount Washington, Ky., said the new task force will "hit the ground running" and will meet two or three times before the next trustee meeting in September.

"I would agree that there is not a more challenging time, historically speaking, to do international mission work," Chitwood said. "There is likewise no era that is presenting more opportunity than the one we have before us today."

Trustees approved the appropriation of $3,290,346.14 from board reserves to fund the operating budget not met by last year's $150,409,653.86 Lottie Moon Christmas Offering, which was more than $231,000 above the previous year's record but short of the $165 million goal.

In other business, the trustees accepted the resignation from missionary service of Rodney Hammer, former regional leader of Central and Eastern Europe. Hammer and his wife Debbie have served as missionaries for 18 years. Hammer stepped down from his leadership role in May after challenging policies and actions of the board of trustees with which he is in disagreement.

(EDITOR'S NOTE - Hendricks is a writer for the IMB.)